One is Morro Rock, the 23-million-year-old plug of an ancient volcano, rising 576 feet out of the sea. The other is a trident of 450-foot concrete smokestacks, built half a century ago for a seaside power plant.. But here, they became a cherished symbol of the town’s working-class ethos.Fishermen used them as a lighthouse beacon
“And now it’s going to be, ‘Come to Morro Bay for — a rock!’ It sounds pretty bad. I’d be super bummed.” “This ‘stacks to storage’ concept transitions a retired fossil fuel site into a renewable energy center repurposing the existing infrastructure, saving time and money,” Vistra Corp. spokesman Brad Watson said in an email.
“Manmade structures have a life cycle,” said Erin Pearse, director of the Initiative for Climate Leadership and Resilience at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. “There are obviously a lot of advantages to trying to convert these facilities into something else that could be used — maybe in a similar way, maybe in a different way — but at least reused.”